Laver was certainly no matinee idol. Just hadn't the looks of a film star. To the contrary he was often described as shy and unassuming man with freckles, hawk nose and bow legs and so on. Just not media-like. The first tennis star who made real money on the media sector by his looks and star appeal was Newcombe, who was built up as a sort of tennis Magnum at Hawai. And there were quite many solid experts then like Maskell, Barrett, McCauley, Bellamy, Clerici, Schröeder, Pignon, and many others who ranked Laver pretty high. I don't think, they all were infiltrated by Bud Collins.